A Dangerous Story
by Leomeome
Summary: Lilly, Scotty and the other detectives run into a very old case. What is it about this case that makes it still worth solving? People may well be in danger because of it, including them! But is it even possible to solve such a case? Rated for violence...
1. 1788

**A/N: I wanted to write a Cold Case story for a long time and now I have finally started it. I'm excited and hope that it will turn out the way I envisioned it.  
>Of course I do not own the <strong>**concept of the ****Cold Case series nor any of its characters. I write this purely for recreational purposes. If you happen to come by this story and have an opinion of it or any other comments on it, please share :)**

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><p><em>Philadelphia, November 8th, 1788<em>

_Susanna blushed as she closed the book. She could not believe the things it said. It was… scandalous! As for that, she couldn't believe Andrew owned such a thing. She knew she should not be in his room , no one but the maids were allowed in it, but she had always been curious for the endless shelves of books he had in here. Every night he brought one of these books down to the sitting room to read from, mostly theological or poetical works. But this! This was a novel! The same as the ones he always warned her against, saying it wasn't proper reading for a lady._

_Just as she considered this the door opened and her brother was there. Susanna jumped up and tried to hide the book behind her back._

_'What are you doing here sister? You know you are not supposed to come in my study.' His eyes flickered towards the shelves, probably checking if anything was displaced._

_'I'm sorry Andrew, I was only looking for a book to read.'_

_Her brother frowned at her, 'You have your own books, do you not?'_

_'Of course I do, I was just looking for something else for a change.' She edged past him, still keeping the novel hidden, 'But you have nothing interesting in here at all, only those dull theoretical writings and the like.'_

_He narrowed his eyes as she backed out of the room but then turned away, 'Do not come into my room again sister, I would hate for you to make a mess of things here.'_

_Susanna heaved a sigh of relief as he slammed the door behind her, then she darted away, the book tightly clutched to her chest. She nearly bumped into one of the maids, who just came out of her room with her arms full of bed linens._

_'Watch where you walk,' she snapped at the girl. 'And leave me alone for the rest of the night, I wish not to be disturbed.'_

_..._

_The next morning_

_Mary was muttering angrily as she carried the tray up the stairs to the mistress' room. It was not the first time the young lady refused to appear at the breakfast table. And in these cases her brother always ordered them to bring the food up to her room instead. He should not pamper the girl so, she was insufferable enough as it was._

_The blond haired maid put the tray down on one of the small tables in the hall and knocked on the door. 'Excuse me miss I brought you your breakfast.'_

_There was no reply, the girl was probably still fast asleep. Mary knocked again, louder this time. When there was still no reply she cracked open the door and peered in. A cold gust of wind met her as she stepped in. The window opposite of the bed was wide open. But that was not what attracted Mary's attention. The young lady was lying on the bed still fully dressed, it was apparent she had not slept in her bed that night. Her eyes were staring wide open to the ceiling, unseeing. Dried blood covered her throat, chest and even her face._

_The maid dropped the tray and screamed._

_..._

_..._

_...__  
><em>

Philadelphia, present day

Detective Lilly Rush choked on her coffee as she walked into the office. A huge pile of paper was sitting on her desk. She was sure she had cleared all of the paperwork from the last case when she left office the night before.

Her boss, John Stillman, approached her as she sat down still staring at the stack of papers. 'I'm sorry Lil, they are making us go through some behind paperwork of the department. Apparently it is a mess at administration and that is not helping to solve cases.'

'Don't they have other people to do that?' she asked incredulously, 'We are homicide detectives.'

Stillman shrugged, 'Budget cuts over there too. But solving murders still goes first of course, just have a look at those papers whenever you have a bit of spare time, that should satisfy the big boss.'

Lilly sighed, 'I guess that would be now. I just closed a case last night. What am I supposed to do with them?'

John Stillman bent over her desk to the stack of papers and picked one up. 'Well, first you sort them according to the code in this corner.' He pointed. 'Then you type them in into the computer. We have a special program for it, it's called…'

'Excuse me is any of you a homicide detective?'

Lilly jumped up eagerly to face the speaker and saw that it was an old man with white hair, wearing an old-fashioned pair of brown rimmed glasses. He looked kind of professor-like, with squinting eyes and a friendly smile.

'Yes, I am detective Lilly Rush,' she said as she stepped forward with an extended hand.

He grabbed it and shook it heartily. 'I have some information concerning a murder. It happened in 1788.'

Lilly dropped the hand.


	2. A Small Piece of Evidence

Lilly was staring at the man standing before her, unsure how to tell him he should visit a nuthouse. Across the room, Nick Vera, stood up from his desk and walked over to them.

'Did I hear that right? You have information on a murder from 1788? How come? You witness it or something?' he smirked.

Looking slightly annoyed, the old man turned towards him. 'And you are?'

'Detective Nick Vera. And who are you?'

'Well detective Vera I was just going to tell your lovely colleague that I have found a document containing evidence in this murder.'

'Is that so?' Vera scoffed, 'And what do you want us to do about it? Dig some guy up from his grave and arrest him?'

'Who says it is only one guy?'

Lilly listened to the discussion that went on for a while, frowning in the meantime. Why would anyone come here with a case that was over 200 years old? Still, the man did not seem as crazy as she had first made him out to be. She was also getting kind of curious what this was all about.

'So where is this document you are talking about, mr…?' she busted into the conversation.

The man looked around conspiringly, making Lilly doubt his sanity once more, 'I could not bring it here, _they _are trying to keep this a secret. _They _are trying to keep many things a secret.'

'Alright! I heard enough of this,' Vera spat and he turned around to go back to his desk.

Lilly watched him go, then faced the old man once more. 'Look sir, I don't even know your name and so far you haven't told or showed me anything convincing that this is worth my interest.'

The man looked angry now. 'I know! But it is not easy to contact the police about anything concerning _them_. It's a miracle I made it here and that is only because I am so good at keeping my mouth shut. A lot of people are in danger from _them _and _I_ just may have something to uproot their whole organization!'

'An organization? Who are these people you are talking about anyway?'

'I can't tell you that here,' the man looked around once more, 'they might have ears here as well.'

Lilly frowned, 'Alright so we'll go somewhere else, where it's safe for you to tell me.'

'No! We can't go outside together! Too easy for them to kill us both outside. The only reason why they haven't tried to do so here is because they are not sure why I am talking to you. But if they see us go outside together they'll know it's something serious and they will do it regardless of what they actually know. I don't want to get you hurt detective.'

Lilly was completely lost by now as to what the guy wanted. He seemed kind enough and she wanted to believe him but he was making it damn near impossible. Suddenly he pressed a small piece of paper in her hand.

'This may be something to hold your interest for a while,' he said, 'It also contains some information on where I _may _drink my coffee _sometimes _in the afternoon, may you be willing to contact me after all.'

Then he turned around and left, leaving Lilly to stare after him. She looked down into her hand at the paper and saw that it seemed to be quite old, yellow and brittle as it was. On one side the name of some coffee bar in town was scribbled. On the other side, in quite old-fashioned looking print stood another word, it said '_killed'…_

**A/N: Dundundundun! I hope this chapter wasn't too melodramatic with all the conspiracy theories etc. I kind of pressured myself to write this a bit quick to get the story going at least. Please review if you have something to say ^^**


	3. Dead end?

**A/N: The names in this chapter are made up by me, any resemblance with a real name is purely coincedental ;)**

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><p>'What do you have there Lil?' her partner, Scotty Valens asked that afternoon.<p>

Lilly was toying a bit with the piece of paper, wondering what she should do with it.

'Huh? Oh, some crazy guy gave this to me this morning. Said it was connected to a murder in 1788.'

'17… Don't you mean _19_88?'

'No.'

'I know.'

'Why are you even overthinking such a case? What is it you have there anyway?'

Lilly handed the piece to him and he looked at it skeptically.

'The man said it might hold my interest.'

'Really? It's nothing but a yellowish piece of paper with one word printed on it. Looks like it's ripped from a book or magazine.'

'It looks really old,' Lilly tried to sound casual, she did not want her partner to think her crazy. As it was, he was already looking at her quite oddly.

'You don't know if it's old, Lil. It could be fake, made to lookold.'

'We could have it tested,' she said, then hastily added, 'You know, just out of curiosity.'

'You want to have this scrap of paper tested by the lab _just _out of curiosity? Are you insane? Who is going to approve of that of the department?'

'I have my connections, I'll just say it is linked to some case,' she replied stiffly.

Scotty sighed exasperatedly, 'But it's not! Even if you do find out it's an old piece of paper, it could just be something from a crime novel from back in the days or so. We would not know _if _it is connected to a person who's been murdered, let alone _who _that person was or _why _he or she was killed. I really don't get you sometimes Lil…'

'Relax alright Scotty, it's no big deal. I'll just have it tested and that will be the end of it.'

He worked his jaw a little still but seemed content to let the matter be. He returned to his own stack of administration.

'…I think.' Lilly muttered.

'What's that?'

'Nothing.'

...

...

...

Lilly knocked on the door of the small, windowless office, despite the fact that it was already standing wide open. She figured she might best start polite if she wanted to ask any favors from this guy. She had been a tad reluctant to go to him as he always tried to hit on her but eventually she had decided this was her best shot at discovering what the piece of paper was. He was the only one from the chemical lab she knew well enough.

The man sitting behind the desk looked up at the sounds and grinned at her and motioned her in. As she did, he quickly smoothed his hair and sat up a bit straighter.

'Well well, Lilly Rush. Now what can I do for you hun?'

Lilly arched an eyebrow at his tone, 'Who says I need anything Wayne? Maybe I just came down here for a chat.'

It was his turn to arch a brow, 'Don't take me for a fool Rush. You have never done so before, why would you suddenly take an interest in my life now?'

_This is going to be harder than I thought. _'No need to be so harsh just because I would not go on a date with you last time.'

'Oh okay, so you will go out with me if I ask you now?'

Lilly gritted her teeth, 'No.'

'Then I'm afraid I can't help you,' Wayne said smugly as he leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms above his head. He eyed her lazily as she struggled with herself. Of course she _could_ just go out with him. Just sit it out for one time. But was the piece of paper really worth one evening from hell?

'Well don't tear yourself up over it Rush, I can see you obviously don't want to go out with me. Besides, your partner Valens already told me what you are up to. You know I can't waste department money on this crazy quest of yours.'

Now Lilly was really boiling inside. Valens had _told _this guy?

Meanwhile Wayne was still talking, '…consider it pretty low of him to rat you out like that.' Lilly agreed. 'But I can't risk losing my job over something this foolish.' Lilly disagreed. 'But you know what? I know who you can go to, the city archivist. Surely he knows enough about old papers to tell you if this is the real deal or not.'

'Yea… maybe he does. Thanks Wayne.' Lilly actually managed to give him a smile and he grinned back. Quickly she turned around to leave, eager to be away from him and the need to be grateful to this guy.

...

...

...

Two light blue eyes looked at her sharply from behind a pair of reading spectacles. 'Where did you get this?'

Lilly shuffled uncomfortably underneath the archivists piercing gaze, 'An old man gave it to me.'

The man's eyes did not leave her, he was obviously waiting for more. When she failed to give that he abruptly walked away from behind the counter and went through a small door in the back. Unsure, Lilly waited. After just a few second he came back, holding a huge book with hard covers.

'So, do you know how old it is?'

'Not only do I know that,' he snapped, dropping the book on the counter with a loud thump, 'I also know _exactly _where it came from.'

Lilly looked down at the book then back at him with the coolest stare she could muster. She was eager to find out what the paper was and why the man was acting so uptight about it but she wasn't about to let him know that, not with all the dramatics he was already throwing in.

The staring contest ended when the man finally looked down at the book. Lilly followed suit. She read the chic golden lettering on the cover; it read _Family History of the Ancient Dynasty of Daxley_.

'This is a book that has been in the archives for centuries. It is publicly accessible so we check them for damage every now and then.' The archivist had actually taken on quite a businesslike tone now and was flipping through the pages of the book until he came to a torn one. 'A couple of days ago we discovered one of the pages of this book had been ravaged. Someone had torn out a word from the middle of the page. We were quite shocked of course as to who would do such a thing and now you come here with that.' He picked up the piece, it fitted exactly in the missing spot of the page, 'I recognized it immediately.'

Lilly tried to read the page but the archivist would not turn it to her, combined with the old style of the print she could not make it out. 'What is this page about?'

'It describes several family matters from back in the days. The history in this book stretches out over several centuries, all the way back to the 1750's.'

'Okay, but what does this exact page describe?' she asked impatiently.

'Well there are several entries from the year 1788,' Lilly leaned forward intently, 'The part this piece of paper was torn from is about the death of young Susanna Daxley, the sister of the master of the house at that time.'

Lilly lost her patience completely, she grabbed the book and turned it to read. The archivist gave an indignant squawk but she ignored him. The entry read:

_'My dear sister Susanna Anne Daxley was inexplicably killed in the morning of this sad Sunday, November 9. As soon as we found her we contacted the constable of the town, but her death remains a mystery. __May her soul rest in peace, by God's mercy._

Staring at the page, Lilly felt exited and disappointed at the same time. She now knew what this was all about yet she still knew so little. The entry did not even say how she was killed. She did not see how she was ever going to find out more. Maybe Scotty was right, this was going nowhere. Lost in thought, she did not even hear the archivist rage on about the vandal that had torn the page of this old book. She interrupted him by thanking him for the information and left, leaving him spluttering after her.


End file.
